Host Stanford, behind individual champion Wu, claims team crown in The Goodwin

   Stanford may have entered the 50^th playing of The Goodwin, which the Cardinal host at the Stanford Golf Course, at No. 31 in the latest Golfstat rankings, but they had won their event 15 times in the first 49 stagings and well, come on, we’re talking about Stanford here. No. 31?

   Well, Stanford made it 16 team titles for the home team and the Cardinal also accounted for their 16^th individual champion when Brandon Wu, a senior from Scarsdale, N.Y. and ranked No. 20 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), defeated teammate David Snyder, a junior from McAllen, Texas, on the first hole of a playoff Saturday.

   The 6,758-yard, par-70 Stanford Golf Course layout played tough with Wu carding a 3-under-par 67 in Saturday’s final round to finish at 4-under 206. Snyder buried a 40-foot birdie putt on the 18^th hole to finish off a 2-under 68 and force a playoff with Wu for the individual title.

   Wu would win the individual title on the first hole of a playoff, but there was no doubt that a Stanford player was going to lift that trophy. And there was no doubt that Stanford was going to hoist the team championship trophy either.

   Wu and Snyder led Stanford to the best team round of the tournament, a 6-under 274, in the final round. The Cardinal had carded a 1-under 279 in Thursday’s opening round and matched that total in Friday’s second round. It all added up to an 8-under 832, 18 shots better than Pac-12 rival Southern California, the reigning conference champion, which is ranked sixth, and 22 shots better than third-place finisher Oklahoma, the reigning Big 12 champion, which is ranked fifth.

   Southern Cal, which had posted a solid 1-under 279 in the second round, closed with a 5-over 285 to claim runnerup honors at 10-over 850. Oklahoma, which had matched par in the second round with a 280, took third at 14-over 854.

   Two more Pac-12 entries were next in line with No. 11 California, Stanford’s age-old rival, no matter what the sport, in fourth at 15-over 855 and No. 87 Washington, outperforming its ranking by taking fifth at 17-over 857.

   The Cal Bears finished up with a 9-over 289 while the Huskies, who had grabbed the opening-round lead with a 2-under 278, carded an 8-over 288 in the final round.

   No. 33 UNLV was another three shots behind Washington in sixth place at 20-over 860 after a solid final round of 2-over 282 and it was another three shots back to No. 14 Pepperdine, which finished strong by matching par in the final round with a 280 to end up alone in seventh place in the 27-team field (including a Stanford B team) at 23-over 863.

   Wu and Snyder were among the group chasing Southern Cal’s Kaito Onishi, a sophomore from Bradenton, Fla., after two rounds as Onishi added a sizzling 4-under 66 to his opening-round 69 for a 5-under 135 total.

   Wu was four shots behind Onishi after adding a 1-under 69 to his opening-round 70 and Snyder was three out of the lead after adding a 1-over 71 to the sparkling 67 he posted in the opening round.

Onishi fell back with a 3-over 73 in the final round to end up among a group that included  California’s Collin Morikawa, a senior from La Canada Flintridge, Calif. and No. 4 in the WAGR, and Brigham Young’s Peter Kuest, a junior from Fresno, Calif., in a tie for third at 2-under 208, two shots behind Wu and Snyder.

   In addition to Wu and Snyder, Stanford has another veteran with a pretty decorated record. Isaiah Salinda, a senior from South San Francisco, Calif. and No. 37 in the WAGR, carded a 2-under 68 in the final round to finish alone in sixth place, a shot behind the trio tied for third, at 1-under 209.

Salinda reached the semifinals of last summer’s U.S. Amateur at the Pebble Beach Golf Links before suffering a hard-fought 1-up loss to UCLA sophomore Devon Bling.

   Henry Shimp, a junior from Charlotte, N.C., struggled in the final round with a throw-out 78, but he opened with a 2-over 72 and carded a solid 2-under 68 in the second round. Shimp finished among the group tied for 45^th at 8-over 218.

   Shimp showed up at a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered U.S. Amateur qualifier at Aronimink Golf Club and White Manor Country Club the summer before he started at Stanford in 2016 and grabbed a ticket to Oakland Hills Country Club.

   Rounding out the Stanford lineup was Daulet Tuleubayev, a freshman from Kazakhstan who came up big for the Cardinal in the final round with a counting 1-over 71 to end up among the group tied for 60^th at 10-over 220.

   The best score out of the Stanford B team, which finished 19^th at 40-over 880, came from sophomore Nate Menon, the 2015 PIAA Class AA champion as a junior at Wyomissing. Menon has been challenging for a spot in the Cardinal’s first five.

    After opening with an even-par 70, Menon added a 2-over 72 before finishing up with a 3-over 73 that enabled him to finish in the group tied for 29^th at 5-over 215.

   Morikawa was one of the heroes of the United States team that cruised to a 19-7 victory over Great Britain & Ireland in the 2017 Walker Cup Match at Los Angeles Country Club as he was perfect in four matches. He only trailed Southern Cal’s Onishi by two shots after rounds of 69 and 68 Thursday and Friday, respectively. A final-round 71 dropped him into the tie for third.

   BYU’s Kuest added a pair of even-par 70s to his opening round of 2-under 68 to join the group at 2-under.

   Oklahoma’s Quade Cummins, a redshirt junior from Weatherford, Okla. and No. 47 in the WAGR, and Nova Southeastern’s Juan Jose Guerra, a senior from the Dominican Republic, shared seventh place, a shot behind Stanford’s Salinda at even-par 210.

   Cummins displayed a strong finishing kick with a 3-under 67 to get it back to even-par for the tournament. Guerra stumbled to a 77 in the opening round, but caught fire in Friday’s second round, firing a scintillating 6-under 64, the low individual round of the tournament. He closed with a 1-under 69 to get his piece of seventh.